Harry Potter and His New Standards

() CHAPTER 10 - Talking Mirrors, Advanced Astronomy, & Spies ()

Over all the breaks the next day Harry, Ron, Holly, and Hermione went over what the words engraved in the tree in the Forbidden Forest had said, and each time it made no more sense than it did the last. Malfoy seemed to keep true to his word in not saying anything about what had happened the night before, and instead of throwing snide remarks in the gang's way he seemed to be avoiding them. It was a nice change, actually. It stayed this way for about a week, although we aren't there yet.

After a cold Quidditch practice on Thursday night Harry and Ron were following Holly in the direction of the 6th year girls' dormitory. "It wouldn't be hard," Ron insisted.

"The hell it wouldn't!" Holly replied, continuing to troop up the staircase closely pursued by the boys. "Make Ginny do it, she's smaller!"

"Sure, but you're sneakier... you could get away with this easier because you're all... scheming and stuff," Harry affirmed.

"Thanks a bunch..." she said dully.

"Just once..." Ron stated.

Holly turned around in front of the dormitory door. "Which would be more effective in getting you to leave me alone... cursing you or setting my lethifold on you?" she asked.

"Just one time, Holly! How can this not be a good idea?!" Harry pleaded.

"How can this not be a good idea...?" Holly echoed distantly. "If I actually managed to not get caught... I'd sleep with Crabbe!" Harry and Ron wore equal looks of revolted disbelief and soon Holly's expression matched. "My God that leaves a nasty taste in my mouth..."

"Please, Holly," Harry said desperately.

"You two are the basis of the team! Why don't you do it?" Holly demanded. She stalked into her dormitory.

"Because, we're too heavy... and we wouldn't have an excuse if they found us. You could just say you went to watch Malfoy," Ron explained. He and Harry walked into the dormitory after her.

"Like they'd buy that... you're not supposed to be in here," she said, putting her hands on her hips.

"I doubt you mind," Ron said quietly, looking around.

"Hmmm..." said a voice from Harry's side. The two boys jumped. "He's got a good heart... handsome too!"

"Willow! That's my godbrother!" Holly hissed, poking her head into the view of the tall mirror.

"Ah, that's too bad... he really does have beautiful green eyes... not a bad build either..." Willow said creakily. Harry smiled widely.

"I like her," he said.

"Look, you two should leave before I go Spiderman on your asses..." Holly said.

"Who?" Ron said, with a bemused expression.

"Never mind," Holly said, "Run along!"

"Nah...it's nice in here," Harry said.

"Do I look like a 711?! I'm not open all night!" Holly exclaimed.

"What?"

"Never mind. Come on you guys, I'm gonna get to bed..." she pleaded, trying to shoo them out.

"Not until-" Harry began.

"For Pete's sake! I'm not going to spy on the Slytherin practice! Have you ever seen that place when their practice is in session? Swarming with all of them! Or maybe I should say 'slithering'... but still! Don't you understand? They don't want to be seen... and Invisibility Cloak or not I wouldn't be able to watch without someone trampling over me!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up into the air.

"Obviously you've seen them at it already..." said Harry.

"I've walked past when I was going to the greenhouses to water my Blemmer."

"How did you manage walking by the Quidditch pitch on the way to the greenhouses...?"

"I... lapped the castle."

"You were trying to spy on them all on your own, you liar!" responded Harry. Holly glared at him briefly.

"Okay maybe..." They simply stared at her. "FINE! I'll do it... I'll go to their practice tomorrow night as long as I get the cloak."

"Great," Ron replied. Harry stepped towards the door but Ron moved over to the mirror, seemingly checking on something in his reflection.

"Ooo, who's this?" said the mirror in a scratchy voice. Ron jerked out of surprise.

"R-Ron," he replied, scratching his shoulder briefly.

"Big, strong hands... even I know what that signifies..." Willow said. Holly jumped in front of the mirror, seemingly trying to shield Ron from view to little success as he was about a head taller than she was.

"At times you are not a very commendable mirror, Willow," she alluded.

"Oh...no, no - I'd say she's very commendable!" Ron negated.

"Ah, the pair of you would be-" the mirror began, but Holly pushed Ron out of the mirror-range and jumped out herself.

"Why didn't you let her finish?" Harry asked in an uncertified tone.

"It's an opinionated mirror, not a psychic," she said. "I'm going to bed now. I'll spy on the Slytherins for you tomorrow, and you need not ask anything else of me for a few hours! G'nite!"

Harry and Ron left before Holly rammed them out, and left for their dormitory to change into their normal clothing. "So, do you have Astronomy with Cho tonight?" inquired Ron.

"Yeah," he responded. He had a mixture of dread and excitement flowing through him. Would Cho be back to normal, skirting around being with him or would she have a change of heart? Either way she made Harry nervous.

"Do you still love her?" Ron asked, "Or does Cha-Cha demand more of your time?"

"Shut it, Ron!" Ron laughed. "She's great at covering for things isn't she?"

"Yeah," he replied. "You bet. It's not like I didn't know you were sweet on her already... that was obvious." He rolled his eyes.

"How obvious?" Harry asked tentatively.

"Obvious enough that someone who spends practically all his or her time with you would notice," he answered with a smirk. Harry smiled. "I told you before that you should go for her... and you had asked her to the Yule Ball before..."

"All right, that makes sense," he accorded. Then he thought of a question that just might confirm his ideas with a certain answer. "How's Almeda?" Ron shrugged.

"Why?"

"Just curious..." Ron turned around and looked at Harry.

"Why?" he repeated.

"I'm only wondering!" Harry in a defiant tone. "No need to go skitzybang on me..."

"Holly says 'skitzybang'..."

"You're observant... I've only heard her say it once around you..."

"Wha- wait... what're you getting at? 'Skitzybang' is just one of those words you don't forget in a hurry... Harry... what are you getting at... Harry?" Harry raised his eyebrows and grinned but Ron's eyes narrowed.

"I sure hope you don't li-"

"I don't have a crush on your sister!"

"Yeah right I catch onto these things like a bat out of Hell!" Harry exclaimed eloquently.

"You what? Okay...I think you're a victim of your own idiocy..."

"Sure."

"Harry!" Ron hissed.

"You're a terrible liar," Harry affirmed.

"And I guess this makes me bad at telling the truth too, does it not?"

"Who said you're telling the truth?"

"I'm telling the truth. There. ME!" Ron fumed.

"You're not much of a reference..." Harry sneered.

"How long did you expect you'd be 'The Boy Who Lived'?"

"Longer than you do right now..." Harry said.

"Why don't you leave, now?"

"No! This is fun!"

"I'm bigger than you," Ron threatened.

"I'm older than you!" he responded.

"No you're not!"

"Okay maybe not... I'm smarter than you!"

"Bull."

"Hey...!"

Ron raised his eyebrows.

"I'm not in love with Holly."

"Okay!" Harry surrendered. "I believe you...!"

"Great. Now, back to Cho... you've been dreaming about her since your voice dropped an octave haven't you? Yeahhhhh!" Ron teased.

"No... more like the point in time when I used to squeal like a pig every few seconds... you know... 'Hi, my name is HARry'..."

*()*()*

That night as Harry drew a diagram of a constellation that was a clear picture of a lantern Cho cleared her throat. "So...um...did you have practice tonight?"

"Yeah," Harry replied, "We did. How has your team been doing?"

"Good. I'm pretty confident about the match against Slytherin now," she replied with a smile.

"Great! Clobber them to the ground otherwise Gryffindor doesn't have a chance," Harry said.

"Oh...we'll beat them all right, problem is my team isn't too sure they want to be matched up against the Lions," Cho stated.

"Why not?" Harry asked, laughing.

"Like I said...you have a superb team, Mr. Potter," Cho said in an elegant tone.

"Be that as it may we perhaps shall never defeat your 7 regal eagles, Miss Chang!" Harry replied in the same voice of superiority. Cho broke into the giggles and Harry laughed along with her. It was a great feeling, making her laugh. It gave him a sudden rush of confidence, and laughing along with her had to be the most comforting feeling in the world. After the laughter died they just smiled at each other for a couple seconds and Harry was the first to crack, looking back into his telescope and flushing a deep scarlet. He didn't see Cho blushing slightly too as her gaze returned to her paper.

They both finished their assignments silently but in due time. For the first time in ages they sat next to each other against the wall to the right of the entry. "Hey, Harry, how much time do we have until Professor Sinistra comes to get us?"

"About... 15 minutes," he answered, checking watch he had gotten from Bill for his birthday, "Why?"

"Uh...just wondering," Cho replied, stirring slightly. "Actually, I wanted to tell you something."

Harry's stomach twisted around uncomfortably. "What's that?" he asked, his voice a bit high pitched. He cleared his throat and repeated himself in a deeper tone.

"Well...I'm sorry for sort of, skirting around you all the time. I don't know why my kindness towards you sort of turned off that one day. I hope I didn't make you too uncomfortable..."

"Well, you did," Harry said. He immediately regretted the cold tone of his voice. "But, it's alright, Cho..." She smiled up at him slightly.

"If anything, I want to be great friends," she said softly.

"Me too. If anything..." he replied. They sat in silence for a couple seconds when Cho suddenly rested her head on Harry's shoulder - this made his heartbeat quicken for a moment.

"You're such a good person, Harry... I've never witnessed you be anything but generous," she said. "It badgers me... you can tolerate and be kind to me when I'm far from perfect..."

"What are you on about? Cho, I'm not that great. I'm just a normal guy... and you're an excellent person and I've never seen you act on an impulse to hurt someone," he affirmed. He saw this as complete truth.

"You aren't around me all the time, Harry. And you can't hear my thoughts either..." she drifted off.

"Don't say that. I don't need to be with you everywhere you go to know that you aren't sinister and nasty, trust me," he said, laughing slightly.

"If I told you something, you wouldn't stop liking me, would you?" she asked cautiously.

"Absolutely not."

"Well... after Cedric died I was sure that I would never talk to you again... I thought that you were the hero and you should have saved him. I wanted to put the blame on anybody; I just couldn't take it. I was so sure that that was the only answer... but when I saw you at the feast... when you came in... I knew that you felt worse than anyone in that room did. You had done so much to watch over... well... you had just fought You-Know-Who, brought back Ced's body... you'd risked your life so many times in the past 4 years and had come out without anyone innocent dying... and... well... it was my guess that when you couldn't save Cedric that there was something that went off inside of you as though you hadn't done your job. But I knew then that it wasn't your fault... it was no one's fault. It wasn't until I had smoothed things over in my mind that I realized that I... that I... well, that I sort of had a crush on you."

During this entire miniature-speech Harry's stomach had dropped, twisted, rolled, and contracted so many times that he was sure he just as well could vomit. But as that last sentence escaped her he was sure his stomach had been replaced with some sort of beast trying desperately to escape him. "R-really?" he squeaked. He cleared his throat once more and repeated, "Really?"

She took her head off his shoulder and looked straight into his eyes, admiring their emerald-green quality and how they were rounded curiously. "Really," she said. Harry now saw that her eyes were looking rather wet, as though she were about to cry. "I'm sorry for ever doubting you, Harry..."

"It's okay, Cho..." he said. He felt as though there were a heavy weight resting on his heart. No matter how much he wanted to, for some reason he couldn't tell her that he liked her too... he couldn't. As to why this was - he had no clue. All it was were a few simple words, and he couldn't say them. He could hardly think them.

Instead, he did something that surprised him even more than it surprised the girl sitting next to him. He put his hand up to her cheek and looked straight into her dark eyes. His emerald-green gaze was something that would make any girl go absolutely wild, though he had no idea of this. But, he didn't think twice. His hand ran slowly to the back of her head and he pulled her forward, cautiously but quickly. It wasn't until their lips were touching that realization of what he had done hit him. It didn't make him withdraw, indeed he was happy he had made his move. If he hadn't done it as a somewhat spur-of-the-moment reaction he probably never would have. But now that he was in the position, he may as well take advantage of it.

Cho leaned into him, a cruel relief and wanting flowing through her. He felt she was very near him, but only pulled her closer. They sat there for a time. Whether it was moments or minutes, Harry didn't know. All that mattered was that it happened. Harry hadn't truly kissed anyone in his entire life... and he didn't feel quite as glamorous as he figured he would have... in fact he felt a little clumsy and extremely inexperienced.

But Cho's lips were soft and warm, and Harry's head swam as he kissed her, or as she kissed him, or... well as they kissed each other. This is one of those things you caught on to as it happened, he thought, otherwise he'd be quite sure Cho would have pulled away by now. He kissed her gently and felt comfort ease in and replace a majority of his nervousness.

He wasn't aware whether it was experiment or instinct but he ran two fingers up Cho's spine and felt her shiver. She had wrapped her arms around Harry's neck, and just as they were getting 'passionate'... somewhat-distant footsteps echoed in the room. They yanked themselves away. Harry wiped off his lips frantically, hoping to God that Cho didn't wear lipstick.

Professor Sinistra came into view and looked around at them. "Done early again?" she asked. Cho nodded. "My... I hardly see the point in making the two of you stay in here longer than necessary! But, rules are rules." Harry who had been hurriedly praying that she wasn't going to cut their time short breathed a quiet sigh of relief. "Could you hand me your diagrams?" Harry and Cho got up and handed their parchment to her. "Good... good... you're dismissed."

They each swiped up their bags and hurried down the spiralling steps of the Astronomy Tower. As they reached the familiar point where they chose separate corridors, they merely smiled at each other and parted, each hot in the face. Harry felt it was an odd 'goodnight', but he had no reason to complain. He grinned to himself as he made his way to the portrait hole.

"Password?" asked the Fat Lady drowsily.

"Malchifold," Harry responded. The portrait swung forward and he scrambled in, rather awkwardly. He took no notice of the empty and quiet of the usually buzzing common room, which was usually a mixture between eerie and depressing, and made his way up to the 6th year boys' dormitory silently. He slipped inside and from Neville's stertorous grunts, Dean & Seamus' motionless but sprawled positions, and Ron's telltale near-silent snores, they were all asleep. Harry changed into his pajamas and climbed into his four-poster, drawing the hangings and smiling to himself.

"I do hope I don't kiss like a lizard," was his last thought before he drifted off.

*()*()*

The next evening, as Ron demanded for the 53rd time why Harry was so cheery, Holly broke into his sentence. "I didn't ask this before... what exactly am I to look for when I'm spying on the Slytherins?" She was holding the Invisibility Cloak under her arm and looking surly.

"Anything, really," Harry said, "Keep your eyes open, observe the plays... try and pick up on anything that we can work against... or tell Cho about." She sighed.

"Alright then. And if I get caught I will rip off your nose and sell it to the manufacturer's of Every Flavor Beans!" Holly hissed, circumstantially. She took a quick look around the common room, which was mainly empty, threw on the cloak, and snuck out of the portrait hole.

"That was...detailed..." Harry said faintly.

"Yeah. I wonder... how big of a hole would it leave?" Ron asked.

"I'd rather not know..."

Ginny sat down in the chair next to Harry and sighed. "Happy Friday," she mumbled, "I'm never asking Snape why we use a certain potion again... 'An excellent question, Weasley. Why don't we have an essay on Deflating Drafts due in next week?' uuuurrrrgh..."

Harry laughed. "Do you need help with it?" he asked.

"No... I finished already... but still..." she rolled her eyes. Harry glanced at Ron and they both grinned. They had years of Snape's nasty essays done and over with, and had never faltered to be spiteful about each one.

"Where's Hermione, Gin'?" Ron asked.

"She left to take a bath, why?" Ginny responded.

"Wondering how on earth to do my Transfiguration report..." he answered grimly.

Harry watched Ginny's features break into a genuine smile, and the way she shook her head. He hated himself for the way his stomach tightened and he felt dead weight on his shoulders. He had kissed Cho not even 24 hours before and there he was, getting the butterflies over Ginny.

*()*()*

Holly found the most deserted area in the stands and made her way up to the top. She took the steps nearest the edge of the stands, where the foundation was stronger next to the wall, and the steps wouldn't creak as much. When she was at the top she skirted along, walking on the pads of her feet as she always did. When she had a good view of the players she carefully sat down and looked around.

There were at least 20 Slytherins that weren't involved in the practice prowling around. "If they're this afraid of having their practices witnessed, they should stop doing things that aren't clean," she thought, watching the individuals look around, their eyes sharp for signs of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw students.

She watched them fly, and couldn't pick out any individual play or maneuver that other teams should watch out for... she didn't see what to defend themselves against. She sat there for half an hour, taking mental notes on what tactics they focused on and what parts of their team seemed to be the strongest. By the time the Slytherin practice was finished, she hadn't seen anything extraordinary which was a disappointment. She knew what to tell Harry and Ron, and what they had to point out in practice, although there was nothing they should strive to work against, as they couldn't be sure they would face Slytherin again.

Harry paid close attention to what she told him when she had returned to the common room. He knew that he had to tell Cho that she needed to inform her team to work hard on their offense and avoid slowing down play, because the Slytherin defense had looked improved and well-played from Holly's standpoint, also they seemed to intercept the Quaffle immediately when things slowed down.

The next day things were clearly looking up as Ravenclaw flattened Slytherin, 280-10. It was an amazing game, and Cho's capture of the Golden Snitch was magnificent. Cheering her on from the stands was enjoyable to Harry... like rooting for more than just a great friend... as though he knew her better than everyone else in the stands. Things were seemingly looking up. Seemingly.